Disclaimer: I receive nothing for this little story since I don't own the copyrights to any of the TV characters from the Nickelodeon show Victorious used here. They are owned by Dan Schneider and Nickelodeon. This is purely a work of fiction from my twisted mind.
Xxxxxx
Tori's Vacay
Chapter 9
Music and an Emergency
Xxxxxx
When they got back to the jeep, Tori took her top off without looking around first and then drove them back to the ranch. Before she stepped into the house she also stripped out of her shorts, shoes and socks without a second thought or checking to see if anyone was within sight. (She wasn't wearing any underwear, seeing if she liked going 'commando'. Much to her elation, she found she really enjoyed it.)
Tori had certainly grown to love the Naturist lifestyle and was now completely comfortable being naked anywhere on the property. Of course she still wouldn't strip in town or where she might possibly be spotted by a stranger, but she also knew her mom and dad were going to be in for a big surprise when she got home after the brief respite and she started walking around the house in just a skimpy bathrobe or totally au naturale.
She stopped in the kitchen to grab a Peppy Cola out of the refrigerator before heading straight for the pool. There, she found Cat in one of the lounge chairs apparently bopping along to some music on her Pearpod.
"Hey Cat," Tori called out, but didn't get the redhead's attention. She walked over to the chair, pulled one of the ear buds out of Cat's ear, laid her hand on the redhead's shoulder and called out again, "Hey Cat."
The petite singer immediately perked up as she turned to her friend and practically screamed, "Tori, where have you been? I woke up from my Cat Nap and couldn't find anybody!"
Tori pointed to the top of the cliff overlooking the house and answered with a jovial chuckle, "Paul and I went for a hike up there. I had to talk to him about something and wanted a little privacy."
"Oh, 'kay-'kay," Cat nodded and immediately stuck the ear bud back in place to go back to listening to her music.
Tori pulled the ear bud out of Cat's ear again and queried, "Don't you wanna know what we talked about?"
"Should I? You said it was private."
Tori had to smile at her somewhat ditzy friend. She thought Cat would immediately become curious about what she and Paul had talked about. Just like her namesake, the redhead was usually the curious one; Curious as a cat, as the saying goes. But the redhead was willing to allow Tori her privacy which made some sense to the brunette. While Cat was normally curious, she wasn't when it came to a friend's privacy and had proven so a few times so far on the trip.
Anyway...
Tori anxiously laughed as she replied, "It was private but I want you to know about it since you're my best friend."
"Oh, okay," Cat said sitting up straight in the lounge chair while taking the other ear bud out of her ear to pay full attention to Tori. "What is it?"
"Well, over the last day or two I've really begun to understand Paul... And I've grown to like him... A lot." Tori hoped her friend would get the message without having to spell it out, but the slightly confused face on the redhead obviously meant she hadn't.
After a few seconds, Cat's face suddenly brightened making Tori think that the shorter girl actually had understood. The brunette's hopes were blown out of the water when Cat enthused, "I like him too. He's kind and has a great house where I can be naked anytime I wanna be."
Tori lightly laughed as she said, "I like that too but I've grown to like-like Paul, if you get my drift."
Cat scrunched up her face for a few seconds as she pondered what her friend had told her. Suddenly, like the proverbial light bulb had turned on over her head, Cat shrieked in excitement, jumped up out of her chair and wrapped Tori in a huge embrace, enthusiastically jumping up and down.
"I'm so happy for you, Tori," the redhead bubbled.
"I'm happy, too," Tori laughed and joined in with her bare bouncy friend in the joyful news.
Unfortunately, or fortunately if you want to think that way, the two exuberant girls slipped on a wet spot on the deck and tumbled into the pool. They both surfaced, laughing and splashing each other.
The two teens were brought out of their revelry by some loud, raucous laughter coming from the side of the pool. They looked over and saw a naked Paul, bending over clutching his stomach with his face turning red from laughing so hard.
"What's so funny?" Cat questioned as she made her way over to the side of the pool and shimmied out.
"I'm sorry," Paul apologized as he came down from his fit of laughter. "But you two looked so adorable just now."
Tori giggled along as she got out of the pool, grabbed her towel, then tossed it to Cat before grabbing her friend's towel and said, "I guess we might have, but it was fun."
Cat immediately wrapped Paul in a hug and screamed, "So you and Tori are boyfriend and girlfriend now? That great!"
"I think so too," Paul jovially agreed as he tried to extract himself from the sopping wet, exuberant naked girl. "But I need to talk to you and Tori for a minute about something."
"What do you need to talk to us about?" Cat curiously begged as she finally backed away from the man. She noticed a three-ring binder in Paul's hand behind his back, pointed to it and asked, "What'cha got there?"
"If you two will take a seat, I'll show you."
The two teens obediently sat on the edge of the chaise lounge as Paul handed the thick binder to Tori. (Since she had dried herself off and Cat was still a bit damp.) The brunette opened the folder and started to look over the hundred or so pages of what turned out to be sheet music while Cat leaned in for a look, also.
Tori furrowed her brow and said, "I don't recognize any of these songs."
Paul lightly chuckled and replied, "I wouldn't think you could. You see, those are all the songs my mom wrote but never sold to any other singer over the twenty plus years she and dad were in the music business. A few of them were from their band that I told you about, but all of the others haven't been seen by anyone else."
"You're mom and dad were in a band?" Cat absently queried as she stayed Tori's hand from turning the page while she took a closer look at one of the songs.
"Yes, Cat," the tall redheaded man patiently answered since the girl hadn't heard the story like Tori had. "But the band didn't gain any popularity so they moved behind the scene. As you can see, mom wrote all those songs and did the lighting for different bands while dad worked as a sound engineer. When I was old enough, I helped both of them out."
Tori continued to page through the book and enthused, "Some of these songs would fit me soooo well."
"That's why I'm showing them to you," Paul said with a growing smile. "I want you to pick as many as you'd like and use them on your next album."
Tori's gaze shot from the album to her new boyfriend's face in a flash and begged, "Really? But then Mason would have to pay you for the privilege of me using them."
Paul lightly chuckled as he responded, "Of course. But he'd also have to pay André if he helped you write any new songs. This way, the money would stay closer to home."
"Home?" Tori questioned as she closed the binder. She peered around the patio and suddenly smiled. The brunette singer joyfully laughed as she said, "Yeah, I could see this as my future home. As a matter of fact, I was thinking I'd love to live here just this morning after feeding and watering the horses."
Cat curiously huffed, "You and the horses again? What's so special about the horses? I mean I did have fun riding them the other day but I don't see what the big deal is in riding them every day."
Paul took the three ring binder from Tori and said, "Why don't you show Cat while I start dinner. Just be back in an hour."
"I think I'd like that," Tori enthused as she got up, grabbed her damp towel and headed for the patio door. "Come on Cat and I'll show you the real way to enjoy riding a horse."
The petite redhead gathered the other towel and her Pearpod and started to follow. As the two teens got to the door, Cat stopped in her tracks, held up the music receptacle and curiously begged, "How come there aren't any B batteries? I mean there are double and triple A batteries, and then there are C and D sized batteries. But I've never seen any B batteries for sale anywhere."
Paul answered as he followed the pair into the house, "That's because the B sized battery isn't used that much in the United States. They're commonly found in Russia and Eastern Europe." He noticed Cat raise a finger and take a breath like she was going to ask another question, so he continued, "And just to let you know, there is an A size, along with a four-A, one half A, F, J, and N size battery. And then there are the PP sized batteries, which stands for power pack; Also, there are all of the flat, round coin-like batteries. In fact, there are over one hundred different sizes of batteries in the world."
"Wow," Cat exhaled in amazement. "That's a loooot-a batteries."
"But you only need to worry about the ones you use," Paul reassured the young singer.
"Yeah," Tori echoed. "Let's not worry about batteries right now. Let's go ride the horses."
"'Kay-'kay," Cat perked and headed for the stairs to her bedroom to put some clothes on.
"Caaaaat..." Tori cautiously called out to her friend to get her attention. When the diminutive girl turned to her, she said, "We don't need to get dressed. We'll be at the stables where no one can see us."
"Oh, that's right," Cat perked up with a smile. She swiftly raced past Tori out the kitchen door to the garage as she called back, "What are we waiting for!?"
Xxxxxx
Cat was curled up in the passenger's seat of the Jeep, blissfully dozing, as Tori drove them back to the house after only a half hour of nakedly riding the horses bareback. The brunette was also a bit wiped from the stimulating ride but was awake enough to drive them the half mile back to the house.
The petite redhead had almost fallen off the horse she was riding when the first orgasmic wave hit her. After experiencing two more, Cat had quickly dismounted and went into the stable to lie down on the hay bales for another Cat Nap. Tori had to practically carry the petite redhead to the Jeep after putting the bridles and other things away.
"Cat," Tori called to her friend to wake her up as she parked the vehicle in the garage and turned off the engine. "Cat, wake up. We're back at the house."
Cat frowned, curled up tighter in her sleep and despondently murmured, "No, Robbie, I don't like the way you play pirates. Leave me alone."
Startled, Tori gently but firmly shook her friend's shoulder and almost yelled, "Cat!"
"Oh, hey Tori," Cat mewed as she stretched out like, well, like a cat in her seat as she awoke. "I guess I fell asleep after my organisms on the horse."
"I think you mean orgasms..." Tori laughed at her friend's use of the wrong word before she became serious, "...And you were also talking in your sleep."
"Oh?" the redhead nervously begged as she looked around the garage at anything but her friend. It was obvious that she did remember what she had been dreaming about, but still said, "Maybe I did. But I don't know what I was talking about since I was asleep, so I didn't hear what I was saying."
The brunette singer could only shake her head at her friend's evasiveness. But this was the second time Cat had mentioned Robbie and playing pirates, and both times it sounded like a game she never wanted to play ever again. Tori was concerned so she had to ask, "Will you tell me what playing pirates with Robbie is all about and why you don't want to play it with him any more?"
"Oh, well, one time, when we were alone at his house doing some homework," Cat hesitantly started, her face reddening in embarrassment, "Robbie wanted to play pirates and I said okay. He pretended to capture me, tied me to a chair, then cut off all my clothes so I was naked." She perked up and smiled as she said, "I didn't mind that since I already kinda liked being without any clothes on..." Her demeanor fell again when she added, "...Except I was wearing one of my favorite pair of panties and they got cut to shreds. And I was also wearing..."
"Cat," Tori softly interrupted to get the story back on track. "You were telling me about the game?"
"Oh, right. Well anyway," the redhead got back to the story and quietly, almost ashamedly, said, "he started fondling my breasts and then... He put his thing in my mouth. He called it his sword, but it was more like a dagger. It wasn't that long."
"He made you..." Tori begged in utter disbelief, unwilling to finish the sentence because of its lewd sexual content.
Cat could only look down at her hands folded in her lap and embarrassingly squeaked, "I didn't like the taste at all, especially when he immediately... you know... did it in my mouth."
Tori was simply stunned, to say the least. She realized it had been almost three years ago when Cat first bluntly stated that she didn't like the way Robbie played pirates during the first of their weekend poker games, so they all would've been around sixteen or seventeen years old when it had happened.
At least right now she and Cat were alone and still sitting in the Jeep parked in the garage. Tori didn't want anyone else to hear these totally embarrassing details, but she also wanted to learn just how far the 'game' went.
"You said Robbie cut off your clothes, groped your breasts and came in your mouth right away," Tori cautiously hedged. "Did he try to do anything else while you were tied up?"
"Oh, no," Cat quickly denied. "He laid down on the floor and fell asleep right after. Luckily, he didn't tie the ropes too tight and I was able to wiggle my way out of them. Then I got dressed in a pair of his jeans and a tee shirt and left."
"That's..." the brunette tried to find something to say, some way to comfort her friend, but she couldn't find the words. Finally after a minute of silence, Tori leaned over to Cat and wrapped a comforting arm around the redhead as she said, "I wish I'd know just after it'd happened. We could've had Beck and André beat up Robbie for putting you through all that."
"No, it's okay," Cat sighed in resignation. "I kinda liked it, except for the clothes I lost and the icky taste... And Rex taunting me afterward."
That threw Tori for a loop. How could Rex, a ventriloquist dummy, have talked if Robbie had immediately passed out? "Wait. How did Rex taunt you if Robbie was asleep on the floor?"
"I don't know?" the redhead simply shrugged. "But he mumbled something about Robbie being one small step closer to becoming a man and then laughed. Rex wasn't nice to me at all."
The brunette singer could only guess that the curly-haired teen had made the statement while falling asleep and was basically taunting himself, too. She knew Rex had made a few snide comments over the years about Robbie's progression toward puberty, so the jibe was probably aimed at himself, not Cat.
Tori kindly patted Cat's bare thigh, lightly laughed and said, "Well, we don't have to worry about Rex any more now that he and Robbie are getting the help they need. Let's go inside and see how dinner is coming along."
"'Kay-'kay," Cat happily chimed and got out of the Jeep, heading for the kitchen door on still slightly unsteady legs.
Tori groaned as she got out of the vehicle. Her legs and butt were also sore, like Cat's were, from riding twice today and also from the four mile hike. But she decided it was a good kind of soreness. She had done more physical activity today than she had in a long time.
Tori could definitely see herself riding and hiking daily if... no when, she moved in with Paul.
Xxxxxx
Paul had waited for the girls to return before he fired up the grill to cook dinner and Tori knew she'd have to try the dish herself when she got back to Hollywood. Paul had wrapped the remaining Gulf Coast shrimp in bacon and grilled them to perfection.
Tori could see that the dish could be used either as a main course or maybe even as an appetizer or finger-food at a party.
As they were finishing up their meal on the patio, they heard an airplane engine sputtering while the sound grew louder. The three stood and searched the sky to see if they could spot the troubled plane.
Not two seconds later, a single engined Cessna came swooping down the canyon only twenty feet above the ground, its engine coughing and gunning erratically. Paul mutter loud enough for the girls to hear, "He's not going to make it."
The engine revved one more time in a last ditch effort to gain altitude but it was a lost cause. The plane suddenly lost all power and almost nose-dived into the pasture near the house midway between the two cliffs leaving a deep furrow in the ground before settling back on its tails.
Paul immediately raced over to the cabana and grabbed a tee-shirt, cargo shorts and moccasins he had stashed inside for an emergency and quickly put them on. As he was getting dressed and grabbing a handy fire extinguisher and first aid kit, he turned to the girls and ordered, "Tori, call 9-1-1 and tell them we have a small plane down in the middle of the field. Give them our location and remind them that they'll need four-wheel drive vehicles to get close to the crash. Then get dressed and come help me."
"Right," Tori acknowledged and headed for the house.
"What should I do?" Cat yelped in near panic.
"Cat, I want you to get dressed then head out to the road to that gate." He pointed to a metal gate along the road's fence line for the field that was a good one hundred yards beyond the main gate to the ranch house. "I want you to open the gate wide blocking the road, then stay there and direct the emergency vehicles into the field."
"'Kay-'kay!" The redhead quickly dashed into the house. Paul grabbed one more thing from the cabana before he took off for the crash site.
After donning her cargo shorts and t-shirt, Tori had to stop poolside to slip into her purple sneakers before heading out into the field. As she was getting dressed she remembered her and Cat's walk down by the creek and riding the horses out in the field, and decided she didn't want to go out there without any footwear on. For some reason she couldn't fathom, there were quite a few 'cow patties' and 'horse apples' scattered out in the pasture and she didn't want to step in one with her bare feet. She and Cat had also learned what some small, round blackish-brown pellets were when they had asked Paul about them. They were deer droppings. Tori could almost picture that a lot of deer poop would be littered throughout the field since a herd of them practically lived there.
Paul already had one of the plane's doors open and was checking the man inside when Tori arrived. She told him, "The paramedics and fire department are on their way. They asked if there were any fire hydrants in the area but I told them I didn't think so; That we're located pretty far back in the canyon and that the town's water mains don't run out this far." She was extremely proud of herself for remembering that little bit of information Paul had told her and Cat when they'd first arrived in town and drove out to the ranch.
"That was the right thing to say," Paul congratulated the girl before he briefly leaned out of the plane, gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and handed her the last thing he'd retrieved from the cabana. "Now, I want you to take this and go over to cut the fence wires. Pull them apart so the emergency vehicles can get close to the plane."
Tori was slightly taken aback from the swift peck on the cheek but couldn't dwell on it because of the emergency. She looked at the tool Paul had handed to her. It was a pair of wire cutters with extra long handles. On one side of the head was a small hammer head and the other a wedge-shaped thing she could only imagine was used to pry the barbed wire off the fence post. Tori turned toward the fence and took a few steps before she turned back and asked, "Should the fire truck and ambulance get close to the plane? I mean isn't there a chance the gas will catch on fire and explode?"
Paul had moved back into the cockpit but yelled over his shoulder, "The aviation fuel tanks are in the wings and they're still intact. I don't smell any leaks so it should be okay. Just go!"
Tori could only concede to Paul's reasoning. Just how he would know that the fuel tanks were in the wings could be taken up at a later time. She could already hear the sirens of the emergency vehicles echoing up the canyon road so she quickly hustled over to the fence.
Tori struggled trying to cut the first double strand of barbed wire. She knew she definitely need to hit the gym if her hands weren't strong enough to snip some simple wire. Using all her strength the wire finally gave. She went to work on the middle strand of the three, finally realizing to use the long handles as leverage to cut the wire easier.
The third and last wire was the easiest to cut but Tori had to stoop down to get at it and was closer than she'd been to the other two strands. When it gave, the wire snapped apart and clipped her shin, leaving a nice little gash in its wake.
"Owwww," Tori yelped and clutched and rubbed at the wound. When she pulled her hand away, she saw quite a bit of her blood on it. "Stupid wire," the brunette swore at the inanimate metal and tried to kick it.
Just then the fire truck came into view and Tori saw just how big it was. She quickly glanced at the hole she'd cut in the fence and realized it probably wasn't going to be wide enough for the vehicles to pass through. Making a snap decision, Tori raced over to the old wooden post that the barbed wire was still attached to and tried to yank the pole out of the ground.
"Stupid pole," Tori screamed as the fencepost wouldn't budge. Angrily, she started to kick and slam the post with the sole of her shoe. Fortunately, she noted that the wooden post shifted away from her so she grabbed it and started to rock it back and forth, loosening it. Just as the fire truck arrived next to her and one of the firemen got out to help, Tori had the post loose enough to pull it up and out of the ground. She dragged it and the wire away from the new entrance and triumphantly tossed it aside so the truck and ambulance could made their way to the plane.
Xxxxxx
Things were finally settling down. The ambulance had left a short time ago, transporting the pilot and the one passenger from the plane to the hospital. Luckily, the injuries weren't life threatening. There were a couple of broken bones along with some minor cuts and quite a few bruises, but otherwise the two occupants of the plane would live.
The fire department was making sure there weren't any leak in the fuel tanks and that the engine had sufficiently cooled down before they would leave. Paul, Cat and Tori had been told that someone from the FAA, the Federal Aviation Administration, was supposed to show up sometime tomorrow or Monday to investigate the incident and haul the aircraft away.
While the firefighters were waiting for the plane's engine to sufficiently cool down, one of the firemen came over to the trio who were sitting/watching on the patio. (Still clothed while the firetruck was there.) As he approached, he congratulated, "You all did a marvelous job getting us to the scene in a timely manner. We just wanted to thank you."
Paul nonchalantly replied, "It was the least we could do to help."
"Are the pilot and passenger going to be okay?" Cat curiously begged in concern. "It was so scary."
The fireman smiled and answered the redhead, "Apart from a few bumps and bruises and a broken bone or two, they'll be fine. You did a great job directing us into the field." He turned to Tori and added, "And you did a fantastic job tearing down the fence so we could get close to the scene."
"Thanks," the brunette nervously chuckled as she reached down and absently rubbed the gash she'd received in the act. "I just wish the wire didn't cut me after I cut it."
Concerned, the firefighter knelt down, examined the wound and said, "That's not too bad, but you may want to have a doctor look at it." He curiously begged, "When was the last time you had a tetanus shot?"
"Tetanus shot?" Tori yelped in dismay. She anxiously fired off, "I don't think I've ever had a tetanus shot-do I need one-what's a tetanus shot?"
Paul cut in on the conversation as he said, "It's the logical thing to do. The fence is fairly old and may be a bit rusty so we wouldn't want the wound to get infected." He turned to the firefighter and added, "I cleaned the cut while you were assisting the EMTs and checking out the plane, but I was also going to suggest she get the shot. Just in case."
The fireman turned to Tori and reassured her by saying, "You've probably already had a tetanus shot when you were six or seven years old. Most school systems in the U.S. inoculate the student at that time with a series of shots, and tetanus is normally included."
"Oh yeah," Tori nodded and absently rubbed her right arm where shots are normally administered as she remembered. "We did get some shots back in first grade."
Paul reasoned, "But that's been more than ten years ago so it means you should get a booster shot." He checked the time on a clock in the cabana he could see from where they were sitting, stood from his chair and said, "My regular doctor won't be in his office until Monday so it'll have to be done at the hospital. Let's go now and get it over with."
"I suppose," Tori whined as she accepted his hand and got up off the comfy lounge chair. "But I hate needles."
The fireman stood and joked, "Well, you'll just have to endure it. You certainly don't want to get lockjaw. That'd end your singing career."
Tori's hands immediately went to the corners of her chin and practically screamed in panic, "Lockjaw!? What's that-can it happen?!"
Paul answered, "It's one of the early symptoms that indicates the tetanus bacteria is present. But it won't happen if you get the booster shot."
"Well, what are we waiting for," Tori anxiously yelled as she swiftly headed for the patio door. Half way there she stopped in her tracks, spun around and begged the firefighter as she walked back over to him, "Wait. How do you know about my singing career?"
The fireman hitched a thumb over his shoulder indicating his fellow firefighters as he said, "We watched your performance on the PMAs at the fire station last year and enjoy your music all the time. Perhaps you'd like to visit us while you're here in Montrose and we can give you the VIP tour."
Cat finally piped up from her lounge chair, "Can I come, too? I've never been to a fire station before."
"Of course you can," the firefighter answered with a broad smile. "You helped us out in getting to the scene of the crash, so you deserve to have the tour, too."
"That's good," Cat nodded before her face fell in contemplation and she said, "But I do have a medical question."
"What's your question?"
"Well I was wondering what happens if you get scared half to death twice in a row? Do you die?"
The firefighter quizzically looked at the young redhead like she was from another planet. Paul, who had already experienced a few of Cat's odd questions laughed and answered, "You don't need to worry about it, Cat. That's why people sometimes faint when they're scared. Fainting is the body's natural defensive reaction so it won't get scared to death."
"Oh! 'Kay-'kay," the redhead placidly answered and went into the house to get ready to head into town.
The fireman warily peered at the two other people on the pool deck and begged in confusion, "Is she for real?"
"Yeah," Tori laughed. "Cat comes up with some weird questions every once in a while but she's a great friend."
The other firefighters came over to get their comrade and went wild when they saw Tori. They asked her a lot of questions about her career and why she was here in Montrose. After she explained her and Cat's little vacation away from the glitz and glamor of the entertainment industry, the firefighters left needing to get back to the station in case another call came in. Well, that and they were due to get off their shift fairly soon and needed to make sure all of the equipment was ready for the next shift of firefighters.
Tori and Paul promised to visit the station and bid them farewell.
